What's up with throwing Shake Shack (with only a few locations) into the competition? If one wants to play that way, I suggest that they throw a local Dallas chain - Twisted Root - into the competition; they'd beat the pants off all of them! (BTW - I'm a big Five Guys fan). http://twistedrootburgerco.com/wordpress/

Nope. When you buy something one day, fly it from one coast to the other, and pair it with two other items also purchased the previous day, and then "re-heat them all, it's a BS test. And if you don't think so then you go buy a burger someplace right in your own area, bring it home and then stick it in a microwave to reheat it. It will be nothing like one you eat right from the grill wherever you bought it.

The part that caught my attention was the complaint that Five Guys lacks salt in their burgers. Shouldn't they be commended for not overloading salt into their product? Although salt content will vary significantly depending on the toppings, Five Guys 265 gm Burger is listed at 430 mg of sodium (1.6 mg/ gram) vs. 650 mg per 243 gm burger at In and Out (2.7 mg/ gm) - nearly 70% more salt.

I was not able to find a serving size for the Shack Burger, but one site did mention 850 mg of sodium.

Of course, if they want salt, they should order a double burger at McDonalds - 920 mg/ 151 gm serving = 6 mg/ gm serving.

The part that caught my attention was the complaint that Five Guys lacks salt in their burgers. Shouldn't they be commended for not overloading salt into their product? Although salt content will vary significantly depending on the toppings, Five Guys 265 gm Burger is listed at 430 mg of sodium (1.6 mg/ gram) vs. 650 mg per 243 gm burger at In and Out (2.7 mg/ gm) - nearly 70% more salt.

I was not able to find a serving size for the Shack Burger, but one site did mention 850 mg of sodium.

Of course, if they want salt, they should order a double burger at McDonalds - 920 mg/ 151 gm serving = 6 mg/ gm serving.

Thank you, mjambro, for pointing this out. One of my "pet-peeves" is the over-salting of food in the kitchen. It's so easy to add salt to taste from the shaker or packet on the table, but it is IMPOSSIBLE to remove brachishness from over-salting in the kitchen. For this reason we no longer eat at Texas Roadhouse or TGI Friday's. And, it looks like yet another reason to continue my quarter century of patronizing Five Guys!

Hmmmm, there's a Five Guys and a Shake Shack on South Beach. Sounds like a good reason for a two-burger lunch!

I've been trying to do the same with Five Guys and In-N-Out ever since INO opened up one of their first Texas stores only three miles from where I sit writing this. It's been open 10 days and the drive-thru lines still stretch 1/2 mile in two directions and they still have 50 - 100 walk-ups milling about in their parking lot. We'll try again tomorrow (Sunday).

BTW: just how did Shake Shack - which I would classify as a "botique burger restaurant" (similar to our Twisted Root here in the Metroplex) - get into this contest? Their store in the Flatiron District looks to be a $5MM build-out and I assume their South Beach location is similarily "fabulous". Do the authors/publishers of this "contest" have an undisclosed pecuniary interest in its outcome? What the heck, why not broaden the "contest" and throw in Peter Luger's and Morton's - they have burgers on their menus as well?!

Nope. When you buy something one day, fly it from one coast to the other, and pair it with two other items also purchased the previous day, and then "re-heat them all, it's a BS test. And if you don't think so then you go buy a burger someplace right in your own area, bring it home and then stick it in a microwave to reheat it. It will be nothing like one you eat right from the grill wherever you bought it.